Tim McCreadie, Hudson O’Neal and Ricky Thornton Jr. each won their respective 20-lap preliminary features on Friday night at Muskingum County Speedway. The top six finishers in each of the features advance to Saturday night’s Freedom 60 paying $30,000 to win for the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series.
McCreadie led all 20 laps in the first feature of the night to earn his second Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series win of the season over sixth starting Brandon Overton, Jonathan Davenport, Doug Drown, and Cody Scott who all advanced to Saturday’s main event.
McCreadie, the 2-time and reigning series champion who currently sits fourth in the championship points battled early on with Spencer Hughes for the lead. “It was tough running that first feature because you didn’t know where to run. Then we started to get the top line run in and that’s where I stayed for the rest of the race. Thanks to all my guys and everybody at Longhorn for busting their tails this week on the car. It was a tough weekend at Lernerville last Saturday, because we had to fight through so many issues, but we came here tonight, and the car was good. I am looking forward to seeing what we can do here tomorrow night.”
The winner’s Paylor Motorsports, Longhorn Chassis is powered by a Cornett Racing Engine and sponsored by Mega Plumbing of the Carolinas, Racing for Heroes, Bilstein Shocks, Armslist.com, Baker-Mitchell Company, Integrous Risk Solutions, Brad Benton Trucking Inc., and The Aesthetic Haus.
O’Neal won the second 20-lap feature taking the lead on lap 13 as race leader Max Blair, who had led the first 12 laps, suffered a left-rear flat tire forcing him to the hot pit. O’Neal then held off Devin Moran for his fourth series win the season. Trailing O’Neal and Moran across the finish line was Ross Robinson, who earned his first career Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series podium. Matt Cosner, Garrett Alberson, and Rob Anderzack all punched their tickets into the 60-lap feature on Saturday.
It was tight three-car battle for the lead between Blair, O’Neal and Moran with O’Neal emerged for the win despite changing track conditions during the race. “There were just huge chunks of mud everywhere. I tried to get up and come down the racetrack to cross him [Blair] over. The track was kind of dirty and I just centered it up and I really thought it folded our nose under. You had to drive it for all it was worth right there. So, we’ll take this one, I thought it was a pretty good race and hopefully we can get a good starting spot for tomorrow that’s for sure. I was getting frustrated a little bit because I felt I had a good racecar. I just couldn’t do anything with it. We were able to pull out there at the end though.”
The winner’s Mark Richards Racing, Rocket Chassis is powered by a Durham Racing Engine and sponsored by Valvoline, Seubert Calf Ranches, Ace Metal Works, Rocket Pre-Owned Motors, Gunter’s Honey, Petroff Towing, WR1 Sim Chassis, O’Neal’s Salvage and Recycling, Sunoco Race Fuels, Integra Shocks, and Performance Grading.
Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series PR
